State community college officials set ambitious goal for increasing degree completions, transfers

Nearly 75% of California community college students need remedial courses before taking classes for credit

California community college officials are launching a new effort to ensure that about 250,000 additional students complete their two-year degrees or transfer by decreasing the amount of time they spend taking remedial courses.

To reach that goal, the state's two-year colleges would have to increase graduations or transfers nearly 15 percentage points. Currently, a little less than half of community college students get a degree or transfer.

The number of students who finish technical education programs would have to rise 16 percentage points to nearly 70%.

We simply have to do a better job. We have to get those numbers up.- Brice Harris, chancellor of California Community Colleges

The task "is, frankly, Herculean," California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice Harris said at a news conference Wednesday. But "we simply have to do a better job. We have to get those numbers up."

With nearly 2.1 million students, the 112-campus California community college system is the largest in the country.

@bikemom1056 Like many Californian's you justify your views based on an anecdote or a memory. The facts are that across the system, most students do not graduate or transfer. Many of the 112 separate campuses are located politically so everyone can have access, yet many produce virtually...

Officials are not counting on a large increase in state funding to accomplish their goals, Harris said. Instead, more community colleges will begin giving priority registration to students who participate in orientation and educational planning. The system will offer more academic counseling and provide more targeted remedial courses to students to ensure that they only take classes they need to advance.

North Carolina's two-year schools began offering different assessment tests in 2012 that would more accurately determine which remedial courses students are required to take.

Nearly 75% of California community college students need to take basic math and English courses before they can take classes for credit, according to state statistics.

Students and education officials say it can be difficult to get seats in those classes, which contributes to students failing to finish their educations.

There will be no official sanctions if completion goals aren't met, Harris said. But, if community colleges don't begin producing more graduates who can enter the workforce, "California will begin to lose its competitive edge," Harris said.

With universities less accessible to many students, the state Senate on Thursday gave final legislative approval to a measure that would allow California community colleges to offer four-year degrees in up to 15 campuses.

The California attorney general’s office has asked the state Supreme Court to depublish a controversial ruling that it argues will impede the state's ability to encourage conservation by charging people higher rates when they use excessive amounts of water.

A Los Angeles Department of Water and Power audio-visual technician was charged Thursday with misappropriating more than $4 million in public funds, creating another financial scandal for a city-owned utility that is about to request permission to raise rates.

One of the financial lifelines of California's bullet train project has been $3.2 billion in federal grants. But a provision included in a key transportation funding bill passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday could place a roadblock on future federal payouts.

Even as California's leaders prepare a new state budget that is flush with cash, Gov. Jerry Brown has increasingly raised the specter of another recession that could undo years of hard-won financial progress.